ANDROGEN ACTION--CONTROL OF INDIVIDUAL CELL GROWTH

豚鼠精囊上皮是雄激素依赖性组织 它合成和分泌四种主要的分泌蛋白(SVP 1-4)。我们的 以前的工作已经证明，这四种分泌蛋白是被切割的 从一系列复杂的蛋白质中的两个主要翻译产物 处理反应。去势会降低蛋白质的效率 加工，并导致加工中间体在 精囊腔精囊的管腔 我们已经证明，至少有一个对雄激素敏感的过程 反应是一种蛋白水解性裂解。我们现在计划调查 特异性蛋白水解酶调控的分子机制 雄激素的活性。加工过程的进一步结构分析 还将执行中间体，目标是确定其他 雄激素敏感的处理步骤。 因为我们的工作表明雄激素也会影响其他水平的基因 对于精囊的调节，我们还计划继续研究 在这个系统中转录和翻译的调节。我们期待着 这项工作让我们更全面地了解类固醇如何 可以影响特定基因的表达。

The guinea pig seminal vesicle epithelium is an androgen-dependent tissue that synthesizes and secretes four major secretory proteins (SVP 1-4). Our previous work has demonstrated that the four secretory proteins are cleaved from two primary translation products in a complex series of protein processing reactions. Castration reduces the efficiency of protein processing, and leads to the accumulation of processing intermediates in the lumen of the seminal vesicle. We have shown that at least one of the androgen-sensitive processing reactions is a proteolytic cleavage. We now plan to investigate the molecular mechanisms involved in the regulation of specific protease activity by androgens. Further structural analysis of the processing intermediates will also be performed, with the goal of identifying other androgen-sensitive processing steps. Since our work suggests that androgens also influence other levels of gene regulation in the seminal vesicle, we also plan to pursue studies of the regulation of transcription and translation in this system. We anticipate that this work give us a more comprehensive understanding of how steroids can influence the expression of specific genes.